Top Android Launcher Apps in 2016/2017: Free 50+ Launcher

(Last Updated On: January 21, 2017)

One major aspect, where Android leaves iOS behind easily, is the ability to be ‘customized’. The best thing about using the Android phones is that you can use it the way you want. Everything from themes, icons to fonts etc. can be changed in few simple steps and that too without even rooting your phone. If you got bored of seeing same home screen, you can change they way it looks and acts by using the top android launcher apps. These launcher apps are massive bonus of using Android phone. Specially for people like me, who want to personalize their phones time to time. Before we go on the list, we will give you a brief introduction of top android launcher apps. And also let you know that what kind of changes can you make by using them.

Using Launchers is one awesome way to customize and personalize your phone according to your needs. Launchers can be termed as the ‘home-screen replacements’. They are actually the apps which can change the design and user-interface (UI), without altering your phone’s software. By having the top android launcher apps in your phone, you can change the themes and fonts of your phone. You can assign a specific icon to any application. And not only these, you can also have wonderful live+simple wallpapers & home screen backgrounds etc. Like having new wallpapers? View and download the best 1000+ HD wallpapers here.

Note : The list of Android Launchers is compiled the basis of Google Play Store Ratings, User Reviews and Number of Downloads(of each app).

If you think we missed out any app below, feel free to comment and let us know. We will view it and then add it in the list top android theme launchers in 2016 to make it even better.

Free 50+ Top Android Launcher Apps

ZenUI Launcher – Fast & Smart

Personalize your device the way you want. ‘ZenUI Launcher – Fast & Smart’ is one of the most effective and efficient launcher with which you can change the whole look of your phone. It is one the most top rated and downloaded app, currently having 4.8/5 and 1,000,000+ users worldwide. With ZenUI Launcher, you can wonderful wallpapers and themes. You can change the effects, icons and folder styles of your phone with few taps. You can also view all the applications in same home screen by using ‘one layer mode’. It also includes and inbuilt file and app locker, which allows you to hide and lock your apps + files.

Google Now Launcher

How can google stay behind? Here is the official Google inc. application ‘Google Now Launcher’ to make your home screen super fast and smooth. The secret of this app’s success lies in its simplicity. While using Google Now Launcher, just swipe to the right to see the Google Now Cards. Search your files, apps and stuffs right from your home screen. Say out loud ‘OK GOOGLE’ and tell your phone what do you want to do e.g you can send texts with voice, make calls, play music, search internet and much more. It also includes an app suggestion which gives you new app’s suggestion according to your choice.

GO Launcher-Theme,Wallpaper

Go stylish with the GO Launcher. Get the latest themes from thousands of available ones. Choose the fonts and wallpapers, design your home screen with widgets and decorate your phone with the efficient app tools. ‘GO Launcher-Theme,Wallpaper’ is developed by the top developers of android apps ‘GO Launcher Dev Team’ and has 200 million+ users across the globe. Following are the top highlighted features of GO Launcher because of which it has been added to the list of top android launcher apps :-

Theme and Wallpaper Store : of almost every category

Privacy Manager : Inbuilt app locker and hider

Transition Effect : Change the transitions to any of the 17 transition effects available

Solo Launcher Clean Smooth Diy

With 100,000 users worldwide, ‘Solo Launcher Clean Smooth Diy’ is one of the most fast growing launcher. It has been featured many times on Google Play Store in the category of personalization. It’s DIY Features will allow you to take full control of your home screen. Solo Launcher takes up only few MBs on your phone, but it increases phone’s speed tremendously. It comes with Material Design 2.0 which is quite a brilliant feature. It’s cache cleaner boost up your phone with one tap. Personalize your phone with the brilliant themes, wallpapers and cool widgets.

LINE Launcher

After a successful Messenger Application, ‘LINE & Camp Mobile’ now came up with top Launcher. LINE Launcher is super fast and so beautiful that you will have a brand new phone like feel. It was previously known as ‘dodol Launcher’. But now developers have come up with a better, stable and complete application. If you are one of those Cool and Creative persons who like tweaking stuff a little then this is the perfect app for you. The best features of LINE Launcher includes ;

91 Launcher- Smooth, Smart

91 Launcher- Smooth, Smart is very different as compared to other launchers on store. If you are bored with those same launchers, its time to have a different experience. The best thing about this app is that its features are quite easy to use. Even a rookie like me finds it easy to use. 10,000 High Quality themes are available to choose the best one for yourself. 1 Tap Cleaner feature allows you to clean all unwanted background tasks and speeds up your phone instantly. Smart widgets like weather and clock etc. are also available to make your home screen more creative.

Cheetah Launcher

Cheetah Launcher is an exceptional launcher when it comes to personalization. It has various personalizing tools such as beautiful themes, fonts and icons etc. with which you can decorate your phone. Cheetah Launcher has 155,402+ reviews and 4.4* rating in just few months. This shows how rapidly this launcher is getting popular. Thanks to its marvelous features such as :

Dozens of special animations like screen rotation

Long tap an app icon to edit the picture, quickly uninstall it, or edit its related folders.

Use two-finger gestures to zoom in and out. You can also add, remove, and customize extra screens.

360 Launcher－Fast, Free Themes

360 Launcher－Fast, Free Themes is a fast, lightweight and fully featured Launcher with 60,000 users worldwide. It is supported on all the latest android devices (Android 2.1+). 360 Launcher allows you to customize you wallpapers, lock screens, widgets, animations, transition effects, icons and fonts etc. You will have 100,000+ free themes to make a choice from.

S Launcher (Galaxy S6 Launcher

Give the Samsung Galaxy S6 touch to your phone with ‘S Launcher (Galaxy S6 Launcher’. Have S6 like wallpapers, fonts, icons and home screen etc. S Launcher supports 5000+ icon packs and themes that made for nova launcher, go launcher and apex launcher. Main features of this app includes :

Yandex Launcher

Yandex Launcher allows you to personalize your phone according to your need. With this launcher you can easily choose your favorite apps, select wonderful wallpapers from a huge collection, speed up your phone by just one tap and do much much more. A search bar lets you search all your files, documents, apps and contacts etc. quickly. It also recommends widgets etc. so that you can easily customize your phone. You can also change the animations and transitions with the inbuilt features.

Nova Launcher

Another top quality launcher with all the features that you can use to personalize your phone. ‘TeslaCoil Software’, one of the top developers of android, have mainly focused on high performance of this app. Hence, you won’t be facing many lag issues. Some highlighted features and functions of Nova Launcher include :

Font customization

Icon packs : which will let you assign different icon for different apps

Hundreds of themes : with which you can change the complete look of your phone

Arrow Launcher

‘Arrow Launcher’ is a smart launcher app by the Microsoft Corporation. Simple yet Perfect application for those who like tweaking their home screen. A unique feature found in this app is that you don’t have to find your apps if you have a big list, Arrow Launcher manages and arranges your apps itself on the basis of their usage. The recent slide shows all the actions performed recently such as phone calls, texts etc. Apart from these, all the other functions of basic launcher apps are present :

Buzz Launcher-Smart&Free Theme

Buzz Launcher was named as the best Personalizing Android Application on Red Dot Awards. This app is highly customziable and Hence, allows you to change your phone Home Screen, Wallpapers, Lock Screen, Fonts, Themes, Widgets etc. they way you want too. Large number for free themes are available to have a choice from(1000,000+ free themes). So now create your own new home screen with the latest Buzz Launcher by the top developers of Android Market ‘Buzz Launcher Team’.

Hot Features

Customize Everything from your theme to your fonts and icons.

Super Fast and Speedy Transition allows you to switch between the apps in no time.

Yahoo Aviate Launcher

‘Yahoo (Formerly ThumbsUp Labs)’ now finally has a Launcher as well. It’s Launcher is as good as all the other apps from Yahoo. One highlighted thing about this Launcher is it’s high speed. Yahoo Aviate Launcher automatically organizes all your apps and information. This feature will save your time. The other feature of this launcher app includes :

Simple, beautiful navigation : lag free, easy-to-navigate screen.

Smart Stream – an intelligent stream of useful cards to the left of your home screen.

Organised – apps are organised by function. You decide which ones you want to see.

Gorgeous – choose from hundreds of unique wallpapers to make your phone a fashion statement.

CM Launcher-Speedy,Small,Safe

CM Launcher comes up with variety of features. However, the developers ‘Cheetah Mobile Inc.’ have put extra efforts on the 3 main features (The 3 S). These are Speed, Small and Safe. The Super Smooth UI of the app makes it extremely fast to operate. The extreme lightweight of the app takes almost no space on phone storage and allows you to boost your phone’s speed by 100%. Another wonderful feature of this app is high protection. With CM Launcher, all your files and documents are protected via and inbuilt antivirus engine called ‘AV-TEST’.

Apart from these, the other top class features of CM Launcher are

Personalization : Personalize your phone with the thousands of free High Quality Themes and Sound Effects

Battery Saving : With CM, you can clear up your phone memory and increase your battery timing by 30%

App Hider : You can make your apps private by hiding them with App Hider

L Launcher – Lollipop Launcher

Highly customizable, super smooth and beautiful launcher application. Now use it on Android 4.0+ devices. L Launcher supports almost all the icons from various icon packs. Hence, you can change the icons of your phones easily and also can change the size of them (small and large etc.). Comes with transparent status bar and translucent navigation bar. The Drawer allows you to Hide and Sort apps and Create new folders.

Apex Launcher

A powerful, features packed and efficient launcher application that can change the whole look of your phone. Apex Launcher is one of the top app available on Google Play Store. Its brilliance can be seen from the following remarks from top sites,

“Fantastic app that has the potential to give your phone a complete makeover. I highly recommend it.” – MakeUseOf“Even after a lot of customization, Apex Launcher feels super fast.” – Pocket Now“We must say it is as smooth as butter.” – Droid Life.

As I mentioned already, it is a featured packed launcher. It is like having a phone within the phone. Following are the hot features of this app :

Customizable homescreen grid size and up to 9 homescreens

Scrollable dock with up to 7 icons per page and up to 5 pages

Infinite & elastic scrolling (homescreen, drawer and dock)

Fancy transition effects (tablet, cube, etc.)

Hide elements as you want (persistent search bar, status bar, or even the dock)

Next Launcher 3D Shell Lite

Extremely Smooth and High Quality Launcher App with tons of brilliant features. With 534,669+ users world wide and 4.4 rating on Google Play Store, Next Launcher is surely one of the leading launcher app around the globe and Hence, can’t be excluded from the list of Top Android Launcher Apps in 2016: Free 50+ Launchers. Some of the features of Next Launcher are 3D Effects, Powerful application management, 3D Widgets, 3D Wallpapers etc.

Hola Launcher

Hola Launcher is a simple small and fast app with which you can totally change the look of your phone. The developers ‘Holaverse’ have mainly focused on its speed. But the good thing is that it also offers some extra features which makes it more than just a launcher app. With Hola Launcher, you can kill all the running tasks with just one app to clean up some RAM. Some highlighted features of Hola Launcher are :-

ZERO Launcher pro,smart,boost

ZERO Launcher pro,smart,boost is a top class launcher for newer android phones (Android Version 4.0 and up). It comes up with extremely small size. Hence, it occupies less space on RAM and consumes less percentage of battery. With Zero Launcher, you can customize your wallpapers, themes, fonts, lock screen, app arrangement etc. Without widgets the phone is always boring. Zero Launcher comes up with dozens of powerful widgets with which you can personalize your phone the way you want to.

APUS Launcher-Small,Fast,Boost

5,000 free HD themes and wallpapers, stylish design and super fast Launcher having 300+ million users globally. With APUS Launcher-Small,Fast,Boost you can have 15,000+ free beautiful HD Android themes, 100% with smoother animation, extend battery life by up to 50% and much more. You can completely change the look of your phone without rooting. Definitely an app to include in the list of best Android Launcher without any doubt.

Lollipop Launcher

One touch customization with the Lollipop Launcher. One of the best and fastest launcher which allows you to change the whole look of your phone. With this launcher, you can easily customize your lock screens, wallpapers, home screen and much more. Large variety of themes and icon packs are also available. The hot features of this app includes :

Smart Launcher 3

Speed up your phone with the latest Smart Launcher 3 from the top developers of Android Apps Smart Launcher Srl. Smart Launcher 3 is a complete launcher application having the best features one can ask for. It is lightweight and hence saves space and RAM. It’s material design makes it highly attractive. You can have quick access to your favorite apps in favorite app column. Your apps will automatically be sorted into different categories. Multi tasking is another top feature of this launcher. Other features include Highly Personalizable, Security and passwords, search bar etc. In short, it is a must have launcher if you’re a launcher fan.

Launcher Lab – DIY Themes

Customize and design your home screen with dozens of widgets, wallpapers, fonts of your own choice etc. Have fast and smooth launcher experience with ‘Launcher Lab – DIY Themes’. The features of this app include Visualized Interface, Simple Operation, Lollipop Style, Theme Store, Unlimited More options.

Picoo Launcher – Speed & Light

Picoo Launcher is a powerful yet light weight Launcher Application by the developers ‘PICOO Design’. It is much faster than any default system launcher, and guarantees the best experience even on low-configuration phones. The hottest feature of this app include :

Metro UI Launcher 8.1

Top class launcher for all the windows phone fans out there. Now bring the windows like feel on your Android Phone with the free ‘Metro UI Launcher 8.1’. Other than in other launchers, this app is not copying Windows Phone, but a similar design to the Windows 8.1.

Wave Launcher

One of simplest and fasted launcher available on Play Store. With Wave Launcher, you can open multiple apps with just one swipe. It doesn’t get faster and easier than that. Not only open, but switch through the apps quickly as well. It works independently that means you can have your personal home screen and also one in launcher. Powerful and highly customizable.

True Launcher

Simple and fast Launcher app. The UI is not one of the best but what makes this app compete-able is its speed and simplicity. Beautiful icon packs, quick UI, customizable home screens, dozens of free themes, and hide app features are few good qualities of this app.

Glovebox – Side launcher

Glovebox is top rated android launcher when it comes to multi tasking. Swipe across to view all the opened app and tap them to open. Smooth and fast UI gives you a whole better experience than normal phones. You can have direct access to your favorite apps from lockscreen. Have beautiful floating widgets on your home screen and view the updates without even opening the apps. It also have icon packs support (NOVA and APEX).

Lucid Launcher

Lucid Launcher is quite different from other launchers on the app store. It mainly concentrates on 3 things i.e stability, features and usability. These things are constantly improving with each and every update. Its size is a little large as compared to other launchers, but the reason it the stability. You will not have to face many lag issues and will be operate your phone smoothly. Some features of this app include :

ETheme Launcher – Boost&Lock

‘Not the best, but you must get!‘ is the slogan of this app. Simple yet stylish and extremely smooth to operate. RTheme Launcher comes with 2000+ themes and wallpapers which allows you to choose your favorites easily. One top class and hot feature of this app is custom theme. With this feature you can create your own theme with the font, icons, widgets and wallpapers of your own choice. There is also a Booster than clear up your phone memory with one tap and speeds up the phone. Quick Search bar allows you to search your messages, apps, information, pictures and other documents etc.

Mini Launcher – Fast, Smooth

Mini by its size but mega by its features. Mini Launcher comes with its own abundant themes (1000+) with which you can decorate your phone with in minutes. As the name shows, it is extremely lightweight i.e. 4mb only. You can also import layouts from other apps to save your time. The Mini Sidebar allows you to see current weather, commonly-used switches, recent calls and messages and so on. You can also hide apps with that you want to be kept private or if you do not use them frequently.

TSF Launcher 3D Shell

A brand new 3D Launcher with smooth User Interface. TSF Launcher 3D Shell gives you cool transitions effects. You can have nice 3D home screen, cool widgets including weather, clocks and calendar etc. According to me it is not the most beautiful app but it is good enough to be included in the list. You might want to try checking other apps before coming to this one.

One Launcher

‘Simple is Beautiful’ is something that perfectly describes One Launcher. Highly optimized and features packed app with the main focus on its performance and speed. Its small size will not chew up much memory on your phone. The main features :

KK Launcher -Lollipop launcher

Cool, powerful and beautiful launcher application with a wonderful UI. KK Launcher -Lollipop launcher keeps your phone super fast unlike other few launchers. You can actually have a better home screen than you already have. It supports icon packs from other apps. Also includes an inbuilt Memory Cleaner that instantly cleans up memory with just one tap. View your favorite apps in the Favorite App Corner. Competes easily with all the other top class launcher apps on the store.

EZ Launcher

Beta application, that can be used as an replacement for home screen and allows you to manage your apps, widgets, wallpapers, icons etc. Not the best looking UI, but is good enough for you to download if you care about performance more than beauty. Its Genius App List arranges all the apps in one list from where you can easily search and pick an app to open. Pre-loaded task manager allows you to close all the apps running in the background. Useful and handy widgets: Clock & Weather Widget, Task Manager Widget, SMS Widget, Switch Widget, Bookmark Widget, Calendar Widget. Hide folders and apps with app drawer.

SO Launcher (galaxy launcher)

Now make your phone exactly like Samsung Galaxy S7 with the ‘SO Launcher (galaxy launcher)’. Free and no adds at all. Speed up your phone, change its UI and get a totally different experience. The top features of this app includes :

Fly Launcher

Fly Launcher might not be the most beautiful launcher but it has enough to be included in the list of Top Android Launcher Apps in 2016: Free 50+ Launchers. Good in terms of speed. You can quickly assemble you apps and files. Few top features of this application include Speedy and quick phone search, Smart Folders, Smart Toolbar and Custom Wallpapers.

KISS Launcher

Keep It Simple, Stupid (KISS) Launcher, as the name tells, is one of the simplest personalizing application. You can customize your home screen’s interface. Add interesting wallpapers and widgets. Arrange the apps quickly. Basically, the main focus of this app is to increase the speed of your phone.

Hot Features

Save Battery Life: Optimized battery drain

Experience android in a new way

Smart Search : Find everything that you need. It gets smarter and smarter.

Turbo Launcher®

One and only launcher available so far that works with all the versions of Android (from Android 1.0 – 6.0). Turbo Launcher® is extremely lightweight. Therefore, it doesn’t consume much of your phone’s memory and does not chew up the battery much. The features of this app include Customizable home screen i.e widgets, icons, wallpapers and all. You can change the scroll effects, dock bar, drawer etc. You can also back up your settings and restore them any time you want.

Launch by Quixey Launcher

A beta launcher that promises to be one of the best with its full version. This launcher got everything that one needs to personalize their phone. You can take total control of your phone personalization with just one tap. Organize your apps quickly. Put them in folders and sort them with one tap only. Search all your files with existing powerful search option. Change the wallpapers, home screens widgets, fonts etc. easily with the ‘Launch by Quixey Launcher’

Aero Launcher – Live Wallpaper

One of the most simplest and easy to use Launcher app. You can quickly arrange your apps with one tap. Set up your home screen. Select a wallpaper from a large collection and start your new experience. This app also comes with the live wallpaper support. Some of the features of this app are as following

Torque Launcher

Not the most beautiful looking application, but the best thing about it is the speed. If you want smooth operations, lag-less performance and high speed performance than you really should download this app. Its small size makes sure that it does not consume much space on your phone and do not chew up your battery. The top features of this app includes :

Tiny size

Super fast

Super smooth

Transluscent ALL-APPS menu.

Optimally placed icons for an uncluttered look.

Supports all kinds of devices ranging from a small screen sized phone to a 10 inches tablet.

Honeycomb Launcher

Honeycomb Launcher is one of the top rated apps with 100,000+ downloads and 4.5* rating on Google Play Store. Highly efficient and smoothly operates without and lag. You can easily arrange all your apps with just one tap auto arrange. Its developers say that every function of this app will take just 3 seconds. Like you can open your apps, switch through opened apps, call or text your friends etc. just in 3 seconds. Quickest: Message or call your favorite contacts in just one click.

Ami Launcher

Minimalist design, lightweight and extremely smooth operation of this app urges us to put it in the list of 50+ Best Android Launcher Apps. Personalize your home/lock screens, fonts and icons etc. and give a whole new look to your phone. ‘Ami Launcher’ has some wide range of wallpapers, from which you can select the ones you like. The good thing about it’s developer is that they keep launching the new versions with better wallpapers, icons and fonts etc.

AFast Launcher – Cool Launcher

A lightweight, small and extremely powerful launcher with all the features that a personalizing app should have. AFast Launcher, as the name tells, the developers have mainly concentrated on it’s performance and speed. This app will automatically arrange your apps and hence you will not have to worry about assembling your applications one by one. apk Size is very small. This means you will not have to worry about your phone memory. You can download the available themes and use them with one tap. You can also import themes, icon packs, fonts from 3rd Party apps.

Nano Launcher

Simple and smart launcher. Extremely recommended to those people who are tired of stock themes and don’t know much about personalization. It is quite easy to use and is very lightweight. Hence, you will not have to worry about your phone’s memory and battery while using Nano Launcher. All the unwanted features that are of no use are removed in the latest version. So download is now and enjoy the smooth and best Launcher experience.

Launcher 8 WP style

Do you love windows phone? And always wanted to have one but couldn’t? Now enjoy windows theme on your Android phone with ‘Launcher 8 WP style’. Customize the tiles, have windows like menu, use wallpapers of large variety, download windows 8 ringtones and have the real windows 8 experience.

C Launcher Speedy Brief Launch

One of the most Friendly launcher available on Google Play Store. You can customize almost everything from UI to fonts. Speedy mobile searches, battery saving, inbuilt protection and powerful widgets are the most highlighted features of this application. 10,000,000 – 50,000,000 installs. Supported Languages include English, Arabic, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal) Indonesian, Hindi, Spanish, Russian, Thai, Vietnamese and Chinese.

Launcher Planet 120K Wallpaper

With 7,000,000+ downloads, this app offers you the most smoothest and fastest launcher experience. With Planet Launcher, you can kill all the running apps, files, websites with just one tap. 700+ free themes and 120,000+ background images allows your to personalize your phone the way you want. Categorize all your downloaded apps into folders with just one tap.

MIUI 5 – ICON PACK

If you’re a fan of having custom icon packs then here is one of the best icon pack to use with the launcher. 3700+ icons allows you to have a wide range of icon for every app. The best thing about this app is that new app icons are constantly being added. Another good thing is that it is compatible with almost all the good Launchers including APEX, ADW, Action Launcher Pro, ATOM, SMART Launcher, NOVA Launcher, HOLO Launcher and LIGHTNING Launcher etc.